


The Look on Your Face

by xanithofdragons



Series: The Dating Misadventures of High School-aged Natori and Matoba [3]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 10:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12703491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanithofdragons/pseuds/xanithofdragons
Summary: Shuuichi still didn't know why Seiji sought him out like this.





	The Look on Your Face

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Natori-POV version of [Temperature](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11964927). Because while I was writing Temperature, I thought so much about what Natori must have been thinking that I decided to make a whole second fic out of it. There are some references to/mild spoilers for manga special chapter 17.
> 
> I'm posting this to celebrate Natori's birthday, but just like the fic I posted for Matoba's birthday, it's not birthday-related at all.

Shuuichi was walking home from school one day in summer when he saw Seiji waiting for him on the forest path he regularly used. Seiji had done this a few times, lying in wait for him on Shuuichi's path home from school, although the worst had been when he found Seiji waiting for him outside his school's gate. Shuuichi still didn't know why Seiji sought him out like this, as if bothering him whenever he could catch him at an exorcist meeting wasn't enough.

“What do you want?” Shuuichi said when he got close enough to talk to him. He was probably glaring at Seiji, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Seiji just smiled and said, “Hello, Shuuichi-san,” as though they were friends greeting each other normally. “It's been so long since I last saw you I started to wonder whether something had happened to you.”

“So you had to come check on me personally? Do you really have that much free time?” Shuuichi was already different from the inexperienced kid he had been when he had first met Seiji. He could notice now when one of Seiji's shiki showed up around his house or school. He knew that Seiji could very well check up on him without meeting him in person and that he frequently did.

Without bothering to wait for Seiji to respond, Shuuichi continued forward on the path. He heard Seiji's footsteps follow behind him. Seiji started asking him questions prying into his work. It sounded like Seiji was still picking up details about jobs Shuuichi had gotten involved with, and wanted to know specific details of one he had worked on last month. Shuuichi resisted telling Seiji anything at first, but gave up and answered as briefly as he could when it became obvious Seiji wouldn't stop pestering him until he got whatever information it was he wanted.

Eventually Seiji stopped asking him questions, but instead of going on his way, Seiji continued to follow him silently. With how much Seiji normally talked, him going silent instead was unsettling, and to make things worse, Shuuichi could feel eyes on his back. Shuuichi wanted Seiji to leave him alone already if he didn't have anything else to say.

“Would you stop staring at me? It's—” But when he turned around, the look on Seiji's face stopped him. He recognized that look. He was used to other kids around his age staring at him for a number of reasons, but the kinds of kids who looked at him like Seiji was looking at him now were the kinds of kids who talked to him and tried to invite him out. Who, when caught staring at him, smiled shyly before looking away. Who, if not easily discouraged, eventually confessed an attraction to him. Seiji shouldn't look like that. It didn't make sense.

“What?” Seiji asked, looking confused and slightly flushed. Shuuichi had spent too long staring at him, trying to process the look he had caught. He wanted to dismiss the idea that Seiji was interested in him, in _that way_ , but if Seiji had a crush on him, all the inexplicable things, why he tried to get Shuuichi to work with him, why he sought Shuuichi out for conversation, why he kept track of Shuuichi's work, started to make sense.

Shuuichi needed to know. He moved towards Seiji, who backed away a little, seemingly startled, and his heart raced. He caught Seiji and kissed him before he could think through his own actions, and it was over like that, Shuuichi only just pressing his lips against Seiji's before pulling back..

“Oh,” Seiji said after they broke apart.

Shuuichi had acted too impulsively again. Why had he done that when he had no more proof than a facial expression he had, in all likelihood, misread that Seiji might have any romantic feelings toward him?

Realization hit that it had been his first kiss and that Matoba Seiji was his first kiss. He was glad, then, that he wasn't closer to any of the boys at school, who were always asking each other if they had girlfriends or had kissed anyone or slept with anyone. And now he wanted to stop his brain and rewind before he thought any more about the hypothetical possibility of sleeping with Seiji, who was still staring off into space in front of him, shocked.

“Um,” Shuuichi started. Seiji still looked startled, but at least his eyes focused back on him.“I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have done that. Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” Seiji replied, as though he was doing so automatically. His expression changed from startled to the usual superior smile, but after the other expressions Shuuichi had seen on his face today, that smile was starting to look like a mask. “I'm fine, but are you so lonely that you'd reach out to me, of all people? I guess at least it's better than the fools who turn to yokai for companionship.”

“What!?” Shuuichi backed away. Seiji was probably right, in a way. It was true that Shuuichi was lonely, and that he kept reaching out to Seiji in spite of everything, but Seiji had some nerve turning it all back onto him when Seiji was always the one coming to Shuuichi first. Shuuichi couldn't forget, either, how wistful Seiji had sounded when talking about making contracts with yokai and how much he had treasured a pot holding a yokai he could probably never tame. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Seiji asked.

“The way you were staring at me earlier, you...” Shuuchi didn't want to have to spell it out. “You like me, don't you?” He sounded awkward and uncool. As silly as it had sounded in his head, it sounded even sillier spoken aloud.

“ _You_ kissed _me_ , though,” Seiji deflected. 

“That was...” Shuuichi could hardly explain that when he barely understood himself why he had done it. “I...” Seiji irritated him. He couldn't agree with Seiji's way of doing things or his way of looking at the world. “You...” Shuuichi should want to have as little to do with Seiji as possible, and yet here he was, kissing him just because Seiji had been checking him out. 

There were times Shuuichi wished he could be a friend to Seiji, but with the way Seiji acted towards him, he had been torn between wanting to get closer to Seiji and not wanting to have anything to do with him at all. Still, Seiji came to him regardless of what Shuuichi wanted and he had learned more and more about Seiji. Eventually he had started to have times he wished he could protect Seiji, but if he told Seiji that, he was sure Seiji would laugh at him. Seiji was more knowledgeable about yokai, more experienced in exorcism, and more talented by birth.

Shuuichi took Seiji in his arms again, pulling him against his chest, and said, “Fine, I like you. You like me, too, don't you?” Seiji hadn't confirmed it earlier when asked, but he'd avoided the question rather than denying it. Shuuichi was starting to guess that Seiji would keep denying it until he said something first.

Seiji stiffened at the sudden embrace, but leaned into it after a moment. Seiji wrapped his own arms around Shuuichi's back and replied, “Yes, I like you too, Shuuichi-san.”

Probably Seiji would continue being Seiji and irritate him. Probably it was too late for Shuuichi to protect Seiji the way he wanted to. Still, Shuuichi took comfort in that moment in the feeling of Seiji relaxing in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. ♥ I have some of my social media accounts linked on my profile. Please check them out and feel free to hit me up at any of them to talk about Natori/Matoba or Natsume Yuujinchou or anything, really.


End file.
